AN ISLAND A DAY

Angie writes,
We have just completed wirlwind tours of St. Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica and Dominican Republic in the last 6 days and are on our last leg of the trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It doesn't seem like we have been on the ship for 21 days. I would like to update you on the fact that Blaine has spent the entire 21 days in t-shirts that were bought from different ports-of-call because he still does not have his luggage and does not know where it is. He has been an extremely good sport about the whole thing.
Mark is doing quite well considering the fact that he has had a serious lack of "American Hershey bars" and stated last night at dinner that when he gets past customs he will sprinting to the nearest shop to get a Hershey's Chocolate Bar, or two or three.
Chris is starting to strongly consider purchasing a motorhome to travel the US, and I suspect one of her motives is the ability to take Rosie along on her vacations.
I would like to say that even though we had quite a few problems and criticisms regarding this cruise in the beginning, we have had a great time and experiences to talk about for a lifetime.
Thank you Chris and Blaine for being such good traveling companions. Having had little or no contact with someone for over 20 years and then spending every day together for 3 weeks really is a trial by fire and I think we came out of this with flying colors.

Where We Have Been in 2009

It has been a very interesting and busy, busy time for us as we continue on our 21 day voyage. We tried to call home from this phone booth cleverly disguised as a blue macaw in Santirem, Brazil, but no luck!

We spent New Year's Eve aboard ship and celebrated the arrival of a new year in style, but none of us made it to midnight! I am starting to think we might be catching the "old fart syndrome" that is running rampant on this ship! We are however; travelling with a few celebrities and one of them is our formal sitdown dinner table mate. His name is Fred and he is the author of "Eddie and the Cruisers", and also wrote "Dog Day Afternoon." He and his wife Pamela are on-board and we have learned lots about the publishing world.

The other known celebrity on the ship is the late Art Buchwald's daughter Jennifer, and she and her partner who is also named Jennifer won the "Nearly Newlywed Game" the other night. She remarked to me the other that she could not believe she "outed" herself as Art's daughter for a measly 25 points to win the game!

New Year's day was spent walking in a downpour through one of the sleaziest parts of Port of Spain, Trinidad. Angie has a photo of what apparently is the Trinidian equivilent of our raingear.

The evening of our very quick walkabout through Port of Spain we decided to get some culture, and so off we went to listen to the national steel pan orchestra of Trinidad. These are some very talented musicians and they even let a girl join the band after like a few hundred years. Yahoo....

The next day, January 2 we took a long, bus trip into the rainforest of Trinidad. The road reminded all of us of the one that goes to Hana. It is supposed to be the dry season in Trinidad, but it has rained everyday since the first of December. We braved the rain and had a very interesting, but wet trip through the Asa Wright Nature Center.

Note to Chrissy Chapin: We came upon a young, coiled female Ferdelance snake at the very end of our hike. I thought about you and the time in Costa Rica when the same type of snake decided to visit your bathroom!

January 3 and we were on the beautifully lush and almost zero tourist island of Dominica. We took a river to sea kayaking trip in the afternoon, and it was a blast. Blaine and Chris almost went an entire afternoon without arguing who should be in charge, but Chris did manage to fall under the kayak and was trapped for a few minutes in the Caribbean Sea. Oh well....those of you that know her will not be surprised as it always seems to happen to her!

The moxt exciting/scary part of our trip happened as we tried to get back onboard the ship. The seas had quite large swells on them and the two minute ride back to the ship lasted 2 hours for us. The swells were making it VERY hard to load the passengers back onto the platform which was hung from the side of the ship. As the swells would raise and lower the tender it would CRASH against the platform, sometimes coming up underneatht the platform, raising it a couple of feet and then the platform with the crew people would slam back down, all the time the metal was screeching and banging. It was terrifying. If you go to YouTube and search on MV Explorer, Dominica, you will find a video that one of the passengers shot during their tender experience. It looks like their was during the day because it was light out. Our trip was later because it was dark and ours was worse than what you see on the video. Chris made this title for our experience:

"TENDER IS THE NAME OF OUR NIGHTMARE"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyWJuu7q6R8

DROPPING LIKE FLIES, by Angie

New Years Eve and we just lost another passenger. Our day in Santerem, Brazil was extended because a lady fell on the gangway and broke her hip. We were late getting out of port because of this. We understand that as of this morning she is still in a hospital in Santerem because the insurance company cannot get their act together.

Later that afternoon, someone had a stroke on the ship. No other information there.

Then we heard two ladies were removed from the ship after the first week because they had been seasick 24 hours a day for the entire trip.

This morning all outside decks were closed because we had a medical evacuation via helicopter and some patient was removed to French West Guinea. Don't know what happened there either.

A good portion of the ship is sick with Noroviras.

Now Mark is walking the hallways and the stairs with his hands in his pockets to avoid disease. The next evacuation will be him with a broken leg from falling down the stairs.

Yikes......

And on a lighter note, here is a picture of the pizza Mark and I ordered in Santarem in a nice little restaurant where we could not read anything on the menu but "pizza" and "burger". We pointed at a pizza and this is the one we got. Notice the nice green peas all over it. On the top of Mark's list of foods that he doesn't like is "peas". I got quite a laugh out of that.

AND THE WINNER IS!!!!!! by Mark

First the good news.... I won two games of SORRY in a row this evening. There was no opportunity for a speech but I do owe my experience and ability to years of playing with my kids.. Thanks Lindsey and Kyle. (Or maybe it was the Tequila).

Speaking of which I am in quite a quandary concerning Tequila. I have finished off the fifth I brought. So now I must decide whether to (1) not drink the remainder of the trip (2) Buy a fifth at the next stop and probably not drink the entire thing leaving the remainder on the ship or (3) buy a fifth at the next stop and drink all of it in the remaining 9 days thereby not wasting any. Keeping in mind that it took me 12 days to finish off what I brought. What do you think?

And now the bad news.... The cola market in the southern Caribbean and Brazil is entirely wrapped up by Coca Cola. There has not been a Pepsi to be had in Brazil. Luckily I have found Pepsi at a couple of the bars on the ship. The other day we were at the forward bar and I ordered a Pepsi. The waiter came back with Angie's drink and a Coca Cola. I informed him that I did not want a Coke and that there was Pepsi on board. Several minutes later he returned saying that there was no Pepsi and wanted to know if I desired another soft drink. I told him that I did not want something else and to void the charge on the little white card with my picture. While he was doing this I went aft to another bar and bought a Pepsi. Upon returning to the forward bar I had barely sat down and the waiter set a can of Pepsi on the table. Evidently in their training they do not learn how to void a charge so he must have raided the Captain's stash in my absence. The other bad news is that the regions Hershey bars are not quite up to the quality of the stateside version. The texture is sorta chalky instead of milky. Maybe they use milk from the local fresh water Dolphins!!!!

The trip up the Amazon has been very interesting and educational. Some of the shipboard enrichment sessions were just fantastic. More than I can say for the food. I now understand why Kyle was so glad to get out of the dorms and away from cafeteria food. We have recently switched from the buffet to the main dinner lounge with waiters. Although it is the same food it's presentation is better and having it served to you somehow makes it taste better too. Chris has nicknamed me "Snackman" because I hardly ever pass up the dessert or the afternoon and late evening snack time normally consisting of cookies and cake. The coffee on board is not the best and recently I found out that it is made from some kind of coffee gel (sorta premade coffee with most of the water removed) that you put in a machine and mixes with hot water.


It seems that George Burns is alive, well, and on this ship. There is a guy who frequents the forward dance bar late in the evening who looks like George Burns when he was in the movie "God", he even has the round glasses. "God" sits at the bar drinking Budweiser and normally some of the young gals get him on the dance floor. Since the ship is moving and he is a bit unstable he usually does a pole dance around one of the columns with several hotties grinding against him. So far he has outlasted the four of us and he is still at the bar when we call it a night. The most amazing part of this story is that "God" happens to be a young 94.


Since this is an educational voyage I have learned one thing.... when you have people in their seventies that are wealthy and have a Masters or Doctorate you end up with some very self centered and rude people. It seems that they cannot grasp the concept that in a narrow hallway and you should apply the same rules of the road that are used on a highway. One can be walking down the hall of the right hand side and two of them will come at you walking abreast discusssing some issue and walk right at you expecting you to move and let them pass. They also seem to gather in the middle of a walkway in groups while talking and block the entire pathway rather than step five feet into a foyer or sitting area. I may not be the brightest bulb onboard but I do have more manners than many of them.

I Feel Like a Contestant on "Survivor"

(Chris writes) Greetings everyone...it has been awhile since I shared some thoughts with you on our journey thus far, and what this grasshopper has learned. I will try to keep the list succinct and it goes like this:

1. Always expect the worse and be thankful for what turns out to be "not half bad."


2. Anytime you gather a very large (i.e., 722) group of people together and most of them are above the age of 60(sorry Dad); there are bound to be a few (e.g., 50%) very rude, obnoxious, and impatient folks.


3. It is easier to just learn to ignore the 50% very rude, obnoxious, and impatient folks and focus on getting to know the remaining 50% that are wonderful people with lots of great stories , wisdom, and kindness to share with you.


4. Food is really an important part of our life and tastes especially good when you have spent 8 days eating some really crappy stuff!


5. It must be really hard for those people on "Survivor" to put up with each other for a chance to win a measly million bucks; and I personally would give them a raise in a heartbeat.


6. Angie is just possibly one of the funniest and funnest people that I have ever had the privilege to call "my friend!"

We have spent the last two days in Manaus, Brazil which is a city of 2 million people. Manaus used to be the No. 1 rubber producer in the world until somebody swiped a bunch of plants, and smuggled them to Indonesia. This pretty much knocked Brazil off the "Rubber King" throne, and they are now in the process of becoming a huge free trade manufacturing zone for every major player in the motorcyle, cell phone, computer chip, etc. in the world.

The highlight of our first full day on the Amazon in Manaus was we got to go to a really neat restaurant that serves all types of barbecued meats, and they just bring in to your table on skewers. They slice you off as much of whatever it is such as filet mignon, venison (I think that is what is was), chicken hearts, lamb, pork, etc., and you pickup your slice with a nifty pair of tongs. Then....they just keep bringing you meat until you flip up this stop sign on your table which can mean a) you are done, or b) you are just taking a little rest to unfasten the first button on your pants! The food was wonderful and we really, really, really appreciated the fantastic food, and service. The food on the ship as the "lady snake kisser" (more about snake kissing below) so aptly stated today "SUCKS!" Enough said....

Today we took a very long and slow boat upstream on the Rio Negro which is a black freshwater river that eventually meets up with, but does not mix with the Amazon.

The photo posted here is one we took while on today's excursion, and as you can see we finally got our Ms. Rosie a sister. Blaine is holding the newest addition to our family and we decided to name her Ms. Slowsie as she is a baby girl!

There were also a few anacondas, spider monkeys, and not one but two different types of Camins which the native children just pulled up with their "pets" in boats beside us, and handed over to anyone that wanted to kiss an anaconda. Hey....no kidding one lady who it turns out runs a snake rescue service actually gave the guy a big ole smacker. I would have jumped overboard except the river just happens to be infested with piranha!

We leave at 10 PM tonight to begin our exit from the Amazon and will spend the day tomorrow sailing or whatever you call being on the ship all day while it is moving. Next stop is Santiem, Brazil, which is on the Amazon, then it takes two full days to exit the river, and then another full sea day to reach Trinidad. Hope all of you had a very happy holiday and are managing to maintain your sense of humor and sanity during the "Great Blizzard of 008!"

Merry Christmas from the Amazon!

Yes, Virginia, Santa Claus travels up the Amazon. Santa arrived this morning on the top of the boat. We have been good little girls so we had a visit from the old man.....no, not THOSE old men, the one in the red suit!!

Yesterday was spent traveling up the mouth of the Amazon, which is 200 miles wide. We got our first glimpse of the shoreline at breakfast this morning, along with a visit from a Giant Waterbug, which was approx. 4 inches long and very scary looking. We saw blue butterflies on the back deck while having late evening cocktails last night (Christmas Eve) and no, that is not the same as pink elephants.

Mark and I have started our malaria medicine and the vivid dreams have commenced. Nothing scary yet, but very weird. Jamaica Man visited me last night in my dreams......

Chris and I wore our "Santa's Elves" hats last night and brought Christmas Cheer to all we met. Chris got a little carried away, though and I think she was mad when I started calling her the Christmas "Floozie"!

Gotta go, Blaine just informed me that is Beer Thirty or something like that, so it's off to the back deck I go, Ho-Ho-Ho.....

Merry Christmas to all

Angie

The Water Rationing Begins

Angie writes: Christmas Eve day and we have entered the mouth of the Amazon. The ship cannot produce any new water so cruisers are instructed to conserve water for the next 7 days. If we don't do a good job, water rationing will be instituted. Up late this morning after an exciting night of Texas Holdem and Kareoke. Blaine won the poker game but he paid the price by having to sit next to "Stinky Stan", an ancient shipmate that cannot count, pick up chips, figure out where we are in the game or (apparently) take regular showers. We then went to the Aquamarine Lounge for Kareoke. The best entertainment up there consisted of an ancient skinny old man dirty dancing around the floor with a bunch of young girls dancing around him, making sure he doesn't fall down and break a hip.
We have listened to several interesting lectures and are getting used to the intellectual flavor of this cruise. And incidentally, most of our flavor is coming from the lectures because the food on this tub is consistent with a college cafeteria. One menu a night and you can get it served to you in the dining room or serve yourself in the buffet. Dessert is a dish of ice-cream with some kind of sponge cake or white cake. Had cookies once and there was a feeding frenzy of old people so that was the end of the cookies. We saw people stuffing their pockets with pieces of fruit last night on the "fruit fountain". No room service on this tub. It's every man for themselves.